Happy(?) 250th Birthday, America!
July 4, 2026, is the 250th anniversary of the Second Continental Congress adopting the Declaration of Independence, which broke with the United Kingdom and ended its dominion over the 13 American colonies. It is, therefore, America's 250th birthday. Yet, as an American, I cannot get worked up about it. I am old enough to remember the Bicentennial. We had just survived the nightmares of the Vietnam War and President Nixon's Watergate scandal, which almost destroyed America and brought the Nixon regime crashing down in ruins. However, the Bicentennial helped put that behind us. It was a celebration of America and Americans, with festivities across our nation celebrating that fact, televised so that people who could not be present would be able to witness them, both here and abroad. The Bicentennial reaffirmed our national pride, illustrating to the world that we had stood on the brink of utter chaos and destruction, only to come back stronger and more united than ever. Even the p...